I find the fact that our current hard left believes themselves to be anti-fascist extremely curious. They claim to be democratic socialists, socialists, communists, and anarcho-syndicalists united to fight fascism. They call everyone that believes other than them 'Nazi.'
The Nazi party was partially inspired by Mussolini's concept of fascism, with it's own 'improvements.' Even though the Nazi party had running street battles with communists and eventually won in the power struggle with them, Hitler himself often made comments indicating his party was merely right of Bolshevism. If the Nazi party existed today, they would not identify as right-wing, but rather as nationalist left-wing socialist party. Hitler actually considered himself a social justice warrior:
"We do not believe that there could ever exist a state with lasting inner health if it is not built on internal social justice" - Adolf 'Das Fuhrer' Hitler
Mussolini used to be a communist prior to his ascent to power. Hitler was from an early time deeply opposed to communism as he drew a link between Bolshevism and the Jews; And between the Jews and the troubles plaguing Germany. One thing is clear, Mussolini also retained his appetite for socialism and being a social justice warrior:
"We are fighting to impose a higher social justice. The others are fighting to maintain the privileges of caste and class. We are proletarian nations that rise up against the plutocrats." - Benito 'Il Duce' Mussolini
The current definitions of fascism all attempt to describe it as an ultra-right ideology, this is incorrect. Fascism is indeed nationalist, but nationalism isn't a system unto itself. The old definitions of fascism described it as the joining of corporate and state power. This was because the various iterations of fascism varied and proved hard to define. One thing that linked them more or less together was the close union between the major industries and the top-down authoritarian state. Nationalism and xenophobia were typically used to keep the populace focused on internal and external threats, and forgiving of the strong state domination at home. These forces aren't necessarily inherent to a fascist ideology, often merely tools of those societies.
What is my point?
A nationalist is not necessarily a fascist, nor is a xenophobe. A Nazi IS a socialist in terms of domestic social policy. Current iterations of American socialists/communists happen to be anti-nationalist and many are tacitly pro-globalist. But if we really examine modern left wing ideas in comparison to fascist ideas, there is a very thin line.
More government involvement in means of production, distribution, and capital.
Government pioneering social justice for particular groups.
Disdain of those perceived as more successful within society.
If modern leftists were also nationalists, they would be almost indistinguishable from Nazis.
Final things to consider. There is no possible way any group who advocates smaller government, liberty, or equal treatment instead of biased treatment, can be a Nazi. The old definition of fascism is highly problematic for everyone nowadays as most nation states under the globalist initiative fit the bill. The new definition, however, serves to demonize the right-wing and nationalism together, while placing less demonization on the left, or on globalism.
"The Nazi State is not a "bourgeois" but a "Socialist" State, on the strength of which it can afford to prevent workers from defending their own interests." - Aurel Kolnai
"Another source of the Nazi Party’s popularity was its liberal borrowing from the intellectual tradition of the socialist left. Many of the men who would become the movement’s leaders had been involved in communist and socialist circles."- Götz Aly
"Some of the similarities and parallels include: Frequent recognition by Hitler and various Nazi leaders (and also Mussolini) that their only revolutionary and ideological counterparts were to be found in the Soviet Union . . . [and the] espousal of the have-not, proletarian-nation theory, which Lenin adopted only after it had been introduce in Italy . . . Hitlerian National Socialism more nearly paralleled Russian communism than has any other non-Communist system." - Stanley G. Payne
Truth is much more nuanced that fiction in this case.
Curated for #informationwar (by @Gregorypatrick)
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